The Journey 290
Wednesday, October 17
Read:  Mathew 1: 18-25
      Relationships are divine. One of the most divine relationships is that of the family. When spouses support each other in their marital and family living, one can experience the power and mysterious working of God in their life. Listen to this amazing incident that was reported by both K. Love and abc news channel. It is about a couple from Georgia, Bud Stringer and Dolly Stringer. In April, Dolly was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was a shock for her, but then she decided to be strong as she faced one of her most painful crisis in life. She decided to shave her head before beginning chemotherapy. When Bud saw that his wife had shaved her head, he felt that he needed to show solidarity with her, in her time of crisis and suffering. To show his solidarity, Bud also shaved his head and that is when he saw that he had black patch on his shaved head. He thought that this was a birth mark which he had failed to notice as a child and to confirm it he called his mother to verify whether he had a black patch on his head as a  birth mark. But his mother told him that he did not have such a birth mark. A bit perplexed,  Bud then thought that this could be a small mole. But later when he went for a biopsy of the mole, does he realize that he is also affected by cancer and that he is in the third stage of malignant melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer. Both Bud and Dolly were shocked, since Dolly was just coping with the news of her being a breast cancer patient and now out of the blue the husband also being diagnosed with cancer.  Since then Dolly has already had several surgeries while Bud is also having extensive surgeries. Though they are going through deep crisis, both Bud and Dolly are still enthusiastic about their family and their marriage. They have been married for the last 20 years have two sons aged 12 and 10. Both Bud and Dolly are thankful to the Lord. According to Bud this is what he said “ I am not a bible thumper, I am a Christian, But I really feel like God’s hand shaved my head. I really do….If Dolly had not lost her hair or chosen to shave her head, I never would have found this”. Praise God. How mysterious and amazingly God works in a relationship and bring hope, healing and joy where each of the partner is ready to take the suffering of the other on oneself. This is what our Lord teaches us and these are the values that ones should instill in all our relationships.
                           We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Mathew 1: 18-25. This is the portion which describes the birth of our Lord. What is often missed sometimes is the part played by Joseph in God’s redemptive plan in history. Here is a man who has dreams about his future and his marital life and with that hope he gets engaged to a poor village girl Mary. But to his shock, he realized that the girl with whom he is engaged is pregnant and therefore he thinks that he should separate from her, without causing her any sort of harm or humiliation. Here is Joseph who is only engaged to Mary but ready to understand the pain and the agony that Mary can go through because she has been pregnant outside wedlock. But it is here that we find God encountering in the life of Joseph and mysteriously working not only to strengthen the relationship of Joseph and Mary but also later when Jesus is born, God guides them to safety to Egypt from the wicked plans of Herod. Here is Joseph ready to take upon himself the burden of his wife and be a part of her suffering and also part of God’s redemptive plan. When he does that, he realizes that God leads both of them in every experiences of their life, in times of need, in times of joy and in times of pain. The whole birth narrative points to this wonderful part. My faith affirmation is that if I am ready to suffer for my family or for the sake of others, If I am unselfish and my goal in life is only goodness and well being of others, God will work mysteriously in my life, giving me hope and healing. What has happened today in most of the relationships is that we are not ready to take up the suffering of our spouse or the members of our family and we are only interested in our well being. It is this attitude that destroys family relationships. Bud and Dolly showed to the world what it means to live as husband and wife and when they did that God worked mysteriously in their life. Let us also live unselfishly so we carry the pain of others in our life and through that help others to find hope and healing and always seek wellbeing of others.